Bye Bye Beijing

Thursday, I (Leanne) had to fly solo. Patti was really sick and stayed in bed most of the day. I wanted to see the China Art Museum and headed for the subway. It was a little odd to be by myself, but I'm a big girl.

The art museum was beautiful -- 3 big exhibitions -- and a day in the peace and quiet of the museum was a nice antidote for the relentless pace of the city. I also stopped by the Lama temple - the biggest Buddhist temple in Beijing -- but it sort of made me mad that they didn't pay any sort of tribute to the Dalai Lama, and I left.

Friday was kind of a rest day. Patti tried to a session, but was told "He no come." The session leader didn't know up. Leanne and Barbara went shopping again, for the last few gifts for friends and family.

Our last outing is the Peking opera. We had to leave at 6:00 for the 7:30 concert because Friday night traffic in Bejing is awful. We took a bus to a hotel, which seemed like an odd venue for the opera, but this hotel has a pretty big theatre in it. We were seated at tables right in front -- dead center, just in front of the stage. On the table are some snacks and tea. How lovely, except it was jasmine tea which Patti doensn't  like.

The opera started and its just as unusual as we thought it would be... but more entertaining than we thought. The snacks were weird but good. The opera lasted an hour and half and we piled back on the bus.Back to the hotel and to pack all that stuff the Hey Lady people sold us. We had to buy an extra suitcase for all the stuff.

It's after midnight, our bags are packed, and we have a 5am wakeup call. Time to come home. We'll post more pictures and video when we get home and recuperate a bit. Its been fun to know you all were enjoying our adventure too.

So bye bye from Bejing. See you back in the States!

Hey Lady! The Great Wall and other adventures

Angela, our tour guide from the Forbidden City, and her driver picked us up at the hotel. We're on our way to the Great Wall! It's drizzling a little, but they are optimistic that it won't be raining at the great wall. Unfortunately, they are wrong. When we arrive at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, its raining cats and dogs (Angela's favorite expression.)

But we're not discouraged and off we go. Up a hill to buy ticket... in the rain... to ride the cable car up to the top. At this point, its raining lots of cats and dogs. And cats are dogs are sitting on the plastic covers over the vendors. They keep pushing the rain off their tarps with poles, pouring the water down on us.

We're soaked before we start, Patti has a sore throat, BUT WE PRESS ON.

Of course, what they didn't tell us was that we had to climb a steep, long hill and then  6 flights of stairs to get to the cable car. This is not Disneyland. And for some reason during this trek, Angela and Barbara are singing Moon River. Angela probably doesn't even know what the words mean, but they're singing away. We wanted to moon their river.

Finally we get into the cable car and head up the mountain. But we're so damp inside the cable car, and it's raining so hard outside the cable car, that we can't see a thing. We hope it's taking us up to the Great Wall.

And then we arrive. We started up the steep, uneven, wet steps. No handrails, no slip guards, just uneven slippery rocks. But it is absolutely incredibly amazing. We're standing on the Great Wall. Wow.

There are surprising number of other tourists, considering the weather, and that we aren't at the most popular area of the Wall. We walked along the wall with Angela -- she tells us about the wall and the history and how the drainage channels only drain on the China side because water means prosperity. And there was plenty of prosperity that day.

We reached the first parapet and walked around the rooms where the soldiers stayed - along with a whole bunch of other folks dripping with cats and dogs... and prosperity. We were one prosperous bunch. Actually, it was beautiful. Clouds were moving moving across the mountain and the forest was bright green.

We wanted to keep hiking, but it was too wet and too steep and too miserable. And now, unknown to us, we had to run the "Hey Lady" gauntlet.  Isn't it amazing how they always take you back through the gift shop? Only this time, it was outdoors with a very narrow corridor, with very aggressive vendors all selling the same stuff. Not only would they "Hey Lady" you to death, they would follow you, grab your arm, and actually block you from moving forward.

We both bought stuff we didn't even want -- so look out y'all -- you might get China gifts you don't want. Angela finally had to rescue us from the Hey Lady people. We got back in the van with all our stuff. The next stop was lunch or so we thought. Angela decided we would wait and eat in Beijing, because she knew of a very nice restaurant near the Summer Palace, which was the second destination of the day. It's know 1:00 pm and Beijing is over an hour away.

Plus, Patti's sore throat is getting worse. Angela and the driver decide to stop at a Chinese pharmacy but it was hard to find one in these little villages. Especially because they don't look like pharmacies -- they look like cow stalls. But finally they found one and Leanne and Angela went in to buy medicine...  Chinheese medicine. Two products were purchased -- one looked like a fairly normal throat lozenge; the other like dried stool.

We eventually arrive back in Bejing, near the Summer Palace, and the driver and Angela are having a long discussion about where this restaurant is. Apparently, neither of them know and they finally give up. It's now 3:00 and we don't care whether its a nice restaurant. We just want a restaurant, and that's exactly what we got.

Its hard to describe this restaurant. It was packed full of people and it looked like a bad Mexican restaurant... a really bad Mexican restaurant. We were led into a "private dining room" - a small room off the kitchen with an incredibly slippery floor. Angela ordered food for us -- because we were beyond caring what was ordered. Actually, the food was very good.

We're exhausted but fortified and off we go to the Summer Palace. It has a giant lake, in the middle of Beijing, with a huge palace and several bridges. There are dragon boats and paddle boats. Its not raining anymore but we declined the hour-long boat ride and tour of the palace. We were just too tired and we had to get back for a concert.

We loaded up in the van for the last time, got back to the hotel and bid Angela goodbye, and collapsed into our room. And by now, Patti is sick. But not sick enough to drink tea made out of ground toadstools.

After resting for a while, we went to the China Night concert, a concert of of traditional Chinese music from the Tang dynasty. Apparently those folks didn't have much of a life, and we soon sank into a pentatonic, catatonic coma. We both fell asleep at least once.The concert was beautifully done, with original instruments and transcriptions, and gorgeous costumes, but at the of a long day, we need something more peppy. We were trudging back to our room when we heard a driving drum rhythm. There was a Chinese folk music concert starting outside. Yay! It was fun and lively and colorful and peppy - a nice way to to end the the day.

Awesome Beijing

We had run into Barbara Geer, the president of NAME (Patti's professional organization) the night before and she was travelling alone. We invited her to go with us to tour Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.

We took a taxi and he let us off - we weren't quite sure where - but we wandered to over to what we thought was Tienanmen Square. It is HUGE. We read that it can accommodate a million people, and there were close to that many people there. As we we walking, people stopped us and asked if they could take pictures with us; we were one of very few Westerners in this place. It was kind of odd, really. After walking through the square, we look across the street and see what looks like the Forbidden City with a giant picture of Chairman Mao on it, so we headed over there.

Barbara with twins

With the other 8 kazillion people, we tried to figure out how to get in - and just follow the crowd. As we go through the first gate, several people ask if we want a guide. We kept saying no... until finally a young woman asked. By then we had seen that the place was enormous and we knew nothing about it. So we agreed on a price - $200 RMB which is $30. Our guide's English name is Angela, and the first thing she did was worth the price: She bypassed the long tickets lines because she was a tour guide leading a group.

Each time we went through a new gate into another section, we thought we were finally in the real Forbidden City. We didn't realize that there is an outer-outer-outer and an outer-outer-inner section -- layers and layers of walls and gates to protect the emperor because he was constantly threatened, even by his own brother. Angela was terrific -- she gave us lots of history and explanation about each section.

After three hours with us, Angela got a call from a friend who was in "big trouble." We weren't sure it was quite so urgent - maybe she had arranged a call to rescue her from these three gringos, but she showed us how to exit and took her leave. But not before quoting us a price on an excursion to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.

Now, how to find a taxi to get back to the hotel? We approached a couple of taxis outside the gate and they said no. We're not sure why.  We kept walking and further down the road a guy approached us and asked if we needed a taxi. He said he had a car and we haggled on the price. We didn't realize it was a private car, parked a long way away, but he was very pleasant, spoke English well and talked about his friends in Chicago. His son was actually our driver, and we're not sure how long he had been driving. But he was very careful and quite sweet.  He took us back to our hotel, having a little trouble finding it.

We did our usual first aid - taped up Patti's blisters, Bio-Freezed Leanne's ankles and knees and both took 2 ibuprofen.

After dinner, we decided to see how close we were to the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium. We asked the bellman for directions and he pointed the way and said, "10 minute walk." By now we don't quite trust the Chinese time estimates, but this actually was a 10-minute walk. The Olympic park where the stadium is, is right next to the hotel. It was worth the trip.

There were so many people in this beautiful park - families, older people, little children. We first came across a little band of men sitting under some trees in the park, playing cymbals and drums and Chinese horns that sound like kazoos. They were having a great time. We listened a bit and walked on. The next thing we came across was a group of young people line-dancing to Chinese pop music. Further down  was a big group of people watching a traditional dance troupe in costume, doing some kind of folk dance, accompanied by drums and cymbals.

But the real attraction was the Bird's Nest stadium which you could see from anywhere in the park. We saw the tower that held the Olympic flame, which was beautifully lit. We saw children flying short kites that made a  very cool rustling sound... its a great park built for and used by humans.

We walked up as close as we could get to the stadium and it is a beautiful structure. We took lots of pictures of it and then walked across the park to the water cube. It was mesmerizing to watch the colors changing. We walked along the water cube, went into the gift shop and realized we were exhausted... and a long way from the hotel. We tend to do this - walk until we are exhausted and then realized we have to walk back.

Around 20 or 30 minutes later, we got back to the hotel.  More band-aids, more biofreeze, more ibuprofen ... but completely worth it. Those structures will be as impressive to people in generations to come than the Forbidden City. Or at least that's what we think.

Train Travel, Chinese-style

There we were, soaking wet with sweat, crammed into a tiny compartment -- we just sat there stunned for a minute. But at least we were in air-conditioning and had a bathroom... AND we had some peace and quiet. We had to figure out how to stow these two huge American suitcases and decide who was going to climb into the top bunk. Easy - Leanne volunteered. What a trooper. Up she went and we tried to settle down and go to sleep.

But then we decided to blog the adventure and laughed so hard that we hurt. When we finished writing the blog, the clack-clack-clack of the train put Patti right to sleep. That, and the 2 Advil PM tablets she took.

The night was uneventful. We woke up when the train made a stop and couldn't go back to sleep, so we needed coffee. We saw people going by with food and thought there might be a dining car somewhere. It took Leanne two trips to the next car, but she finally located the kitchen. Getting breakfast and coffee was as easy as pointing at the food on the kitchen counter. Bad coffee. Really, really bad coffee. Way too strong instant coffee in a paper cup. Tasted like mud. But breakfast was good - boiled egg, vegetables and a steamed bun. Typical Chinese breakfast.

We were getting ready to get off the train in Beijing when a toothless guy looks in the window and points at our bags. After the fiasco the night before, we decided it would be wise to let him carry our bags. What we didn't realize was that he was going  to carry them at 50 miles an hour. Pushing one in front, and pulling one behind him, he took off through the train station -- walking so fast that even Leanne had a hard time keeping up. He took us to a taxi stand and we loaded up for the trip to the CNCC Grand Hotel.

It was a long taxi ride and when we got close, we realized the taxi driver wasn't sure where the hotel was. Two U-turns and one stop for directions later, we arrive at our hotel -- gorgeous hotel. Finally! After a week of travelling we could unpack our suitcases and put our clothes in drawers and send our laundry out. What they say about Chinese laundries is true - they did a great job.

We registered for the conference, ate a very civilized dinner in the hotel and collapsed for a  while.

Opening ceremony for ISME

Later that night, we went to the ISME opening ceremonies which were hosted by the Chinese and it was fabulous - 14 performing groups in a multimedia presentation that traced the music through several centuries along the Silk Road. Patti kept seeing a man that reminded her of one of her professors at UGA - an elderly man in a walker -- of course it couldn't possibly be him, but it was!

We left the concert and went back to our room and went to sleep.

After the first crazy week, this was a semi-normal, sane day. And it was pretty nice.

Will This Day Never End?

The VIP Lounge, after most of the crowd had cleared out

After a nice shower in the room, with clean dry clothes on, we head off for the train station in a nice taxi. He let us off about 2 blocks from the train station - we’re not sure why- and we are once again out in the heat, schlepping our luggage with a million other people. The railway station is a sea of humanity and - you guessed it -- not air-conditioned. 


We get in line and we are literally washed into the train station with this sea of humanity. Inside the train station there are people everywhere. There is no place to stand, no place to sit, no place to breathe... and of course all the signs are in Chinese. Then Leanne spots a sign that says "Soft Lounge" - finally, someplace we can go to escape the masses. Sort of like a VIP lounge. We have to show our tickets to get in, because only the special people can go in. But when we get in, we realize we're not so special. There are about a million people there. There's no place to sit, no place to stand, no place to breathe and no air conditioning. So what's so special? There are soft seats. There  is also a speaker system that broadcast something in Chinese, over and over and over. We don't know what it is because we don't speak Chinese, but it is loud and very annoying. And the only place we find to stand is in front of the hot water dispenser. Every so often we get a little steam bath to go along with our sweat, as people come to get hot water.


For the second time in the same day, we we are soaking wet. We did meet a nice young man from Alpharetta. He noticed Patti's useless battery-run fan that spells out "Go Dawgs" on the blades, and asked where we are from. He was there with his parents and they were taking the same train which was late making us endure more time in that sauna they called the "Soft Lounge." We decided to line up, taking our cue  from his father. We're not sure why. The basic reasoning was that he was from India and must have experience with trains. So we got to stand up again and endure the heat and crowds.


This is when we discovered again that people in China don't know how to line up. We started out 4th in line,and ended up about 14th. When the gates opened, it was like someone fired a starter gun. In the spirit of the moment, we took off too. We didn't know where we were going, but golly we going fast! Down the hall we sprint -- the dark dingy hall -- with the rest of the crowd. We suddenly realize that this isn't just a sprint, its an obstacle course. We have to drag our two, way-too-big suitcases down two flights of stairs and back up two flights of stairs. 


We are neck-and-neck with the Indian family until the second set of stairs, when we edged ahead. Patti's finish line was one step shorter than reality, and down she went. She couldn't fall vertically. Oh no. She fell perpendicular to the crowd, blocking most of the staircase AND her suitcase went tumbling down the steps, towards the Indian family, and parting crowd like Moses parted the Red Sea. 


Fortunately, the sweet Indian family caught her suitcase and brought it up the steps. Two things happened next -- we heard that we only had 10 minutes to board AND we realized we had no idea which train car we were on - and of course had no idea how to read the ticket.  When we finally figured out we were on Car 5, we were standing at Car 11 -- and took off again. One more obstacle to go - heaving the suitcases up 4 steps, through a narrow door, onto the train itself. 

Finally!

Oh. Which compartment are we in ? Using our practiced technique of pointing and looking puzzled, the train attendant pointed out our compartment which was labelled 7/13-14 (???) and we went in and realized that these compartments were not made for American luggage. But at least it had air conditioning. The train pulled out and we finally were on the way to Beijing.

The Utter Depths of Hell; a.k.a Xi-An

Xi-An


Our flight to Xi-An was uneventful and we arrived at the City Hotel Xian early in the evening. We were tempted to go see something that evening, but we were too exhausted and had NO idea what was coming. So it’s a good thing we saved our energy for the next day… in hell. We had passed through the gates and were headed for the fiery furnaces of Chinese hell.


We contacted the tour office that just happened to be in the hotel, and bought tickets to go see the Terra Cotta Warriors. This tour was going to leave a 9, return at 4 and it included lunch. Sounded pretty good.


The brochure didn’t mention the death march through the furnaces of hell. 

Our tour guide

Still with our American enthusiasm we meet our 20-year old tour guide in the lobby. We pile into a kind of shabby bus which didn’t leave until 9:30. We’re already behind schedule. We think we’re on our way to the Terra Cotta Warriors until the bus stops and we are asked to get off and stand in the heat while they figure out who is going on which vehicle. Of course, Patti and Leanne get stuck on the small tiny little van with 6 other unlucky souls who will be our companions on this torturous day. Off we go.


We are riding in a small van, with air conditioning that really isn’t working, through the worst smog we’ve seen. We crammed into this tin can of a van and our perky little tour guide wants us to go around and introduce ourselves to each other. We don’t want to because we’re already hot, but we did. There were 2 elderly Aussies, a young German man, 2 Italians and Joe from Utah. This was the best part of the trip. Nice people. But everyone was getting crankier by the minute because it was HOT.

Patti as Warrior

Half an hour later, we pull into what the tour guide called a “research center” which was really a souvenir shop. We unload into the courtyard and the tour guide introduces us to our “expert” who told us how the Terra Cotta Warriors were made, while standing next to a FREAKING KILN which was fired up. 


Needless, to say, none of stayed to hear the full explanation about how they were fired. And we couldn’t understand a word he said anyway. We knew how they were fired - just set ‘em out in the sun for God’s sake. Ten more minutes and we were gonna be Terra Cotta warriors.


Inside the research center, which oddly enough had lots and lots of little terra cotta warriors for sale (along with a lot of other stuff) we milled about for a respectable amount of time,  reluctant to leave the air conditioning. Then, back in the van. Sardine city.


Off we go, hoping that now we are actually going to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Twenty minutes later we turn into what looks like the parking lot of Disney World - but no Goofy dolls on a stick. Out of the van, we had to walk a good ways to the ticket booth. Our helpful little tour guide said we could pay an extra 5 yuan to ride in an electric car. We didn’t know where the car was going or how far it was, but to shut her up we hand over the 5 yuan because we’re standing in the sun in the furnaces of hell.


We walk another 100 yards to get on some glorified golf carts and we ride around to the first gate where they check our “babies” - what our tour guide called our tickets. We were cautioned to take good care of our babies because they would check our babies three times. We didn’t know what the hell she was talking about and anyway, by now, Leanne was trying desperately to go to her happy place so she wouldn’t kill the tour guide.


They check our baby the first time and we go in, thinking we’ve arrived, BUT NOOOOOO! This is a tourist village that has grown up around this exhibit, filled with people trying to sell everything under the sun. We walk and we walk and we walk. There is no shade and these buildings are huge and spread out over a massive area. We’re all about to pass out when the guide stops us in the sun and proceeds to ask if we want to go big to middle to small pit, or if we’d rather go small to middle to big pit. She said Chinese people like to go small to middle to big and American people like to go big to middle to small. In the boiling sun. We don’t freaking care, but we are guarding our babies hoping that eventually we will get to go to the exhibit. We make a decision to go the Chinese route, just so she’ll let us get out of the sun. But of course that meant walking past the large buildings to get to Pit 3. 


We go in… and its not air conditioned and packed with people. Hotter than the halls of Hades. But there they are, finally -- the Terra Cotta warriors in the original excavated pits. And it was pretty impressive to see them.


We gather up to go to Pit 2, the medium pit and our band is looking pretty ragged. The Italians are complaining, the poor Aussies are falling behind and the two young men are nowhere to be found.  But we go to Pit 2. Again, hot and packed with people, but impressive. This pit is just undergoing excavation and we get to see the early stages of discovery. We spend about 20 minutes in there and gather up again. The Aussies are beyond help, one of the Italians has disappear, the other Italian is complaining and the guys are… who knows?

Now we’re off to Pit 1, the biggest of the excavations. We go in, it’s HUGE, very impressive and hotter than the halls of Hades. By now, we are soaking wet, the bottoms of Patti’s feet are sweating, We spend about 30 minutes in there. It’s 1:00 by now and we’re done… in so many ways. 


What we weren’t told is that there were no electric carts to take us BACK. We have to walk. Uphill. Through the turnstiles. In the blazing sun. But they didn’t check our babies the third time. It was too hot for them to worry about it.


Lunchtime! We had elected to have our lunch after viewing the exhibits. So we’re walking… and we’re walking… back through the souvenir village…. And Patti hears the tour guide say, “Oh, it’s closed.” Plan B kicks in, which is to go to the backup restaurant… which is further away… in the sun.  The Aussies are struggling. They are almost 80, and this is too much. The boys stop and buy watermelon for everyone, which was very sweet of them. We stopped at a corner to let the Aussies catch up, but we’re standing in front of a squatting street vendor under a tree, hoping for some shade, but she makes us move out… into the sun. At this point, Patti is almost passing out. For real. Seeing black spots at the edges of her vision. Leanne is grimly marching forward. 


We finally arrive at the restaurant, relieved until we discover that the downstairs is full and we have go climb 2 flights of steep steps to get to the upstairs, un-air-conditioned room. There is a so-called air conditioner there which we have to turn on ourselves, but it does give us some relief. They start bringing the food, and what is it? Hot soup and hot tea. Patti is not impressed. Or hungry. But true to form, Leanne digs in. Leanne has been able to eat everything -- airplane food, hotel food, local food... This is not a new trend. 


The good news -- by this time our little group has bonded, sort of like prisoners of war. 


Patti finishes watching everyone eat, we have cooled off a little bit, and we trudge back to our rickety little van. And off we go back to Xian. In the van, with basically no air conditioning. It’s finally over. And we lived to tell the tale.


Now, we both grew up in the southeast United States. We know hot and humid, or so we thought. This was the hottest, most miserable day of our lives… except, we still didn’t know what was coming.

Wuhan, Parts III and IV

Wuhan, Part III


We came back from the gong factory, passed out in the room and slept for several hours, giving quiet thanks for a 5-star hotel. God bless the Marco Polo Wuhan.


Refreshed and ready for dinner, we asked our buddy John Chen to tell us how to get to a Brazilian BBQ restaurant that was listed in the hotel brochure. He quickly told us it wasn’t any good and sent us to another of his favorites, which was a 20-minute walk from the hotel. Twenty Chinese minutes… 45 American minutes. Again, it was hot as hell and we didn’t know where we were going, so we kept trying to dart into auto repair places because we couldn’t read the signs.


Finally, we came to a gigantic building with hundreds of tables with white tablecloths, and hoped this was the place. And even if it wasn’t the place, we were eating there. Period. Patti was not walking one more step because Patti wanted to take a taxi to start with and Leanne said, “Oh, its only a 20 minute walk.”

So we go in and people stare at us like we’re monkeys in a zoo. They don’t ask us to sit down, they don’t ask us anything, they just stare at us. Finally, they gather their wits about them and seat us a table right by the door so more people can stare at us as they come and go. We are the dinner entertainment. Little children turned their heads all the way around so they could stare at us. One little boy couldn’t help himself. He just had to stop and talk to us. It was a one-way conversation since he was speaking Chinese. It’s hard to explain to a 4-year old Chinese kid why you can’t talk to him and his parents didn’t help a bit.


We proceeded to order and thank God they had picture menu books. However, “water” wasn’t on the menu and we had to go through three servers before we could communicate that we wanted water. Our waitress was so thrilled to know what we wanted that she came running out of the kitchen with the water bottles. The food was really good, we paid the bill and people continued to stare. 


We took a taxi back to the hotel. 


Wuhan, Part IV


Hard to believe we had only been in Wuhan for 24 hours. But 24 hours in hell is still only 24 hours. Little did we know that this was only the gates of hell. The depths of hell was yet to come… but more about that later.

The next morning, we had enough time before our flight to go to one more thing we wanted to see; the Hubei Provincial Museum. We knew this was too far to walk, so we asked the bellman to get us a cab, which he did. A Citroen, which we have learned is not a very good car. This was reinforced  because (a)the transmission sounded like it was going to fall out and (b)it wasn’t going very fast. So about six blocks from the hotel, the drivers pulls over, we get out, he pops the hood and rummages around and pulls out a black piece of something. And then looks at us and says “Sorry.” To his credit, he sets about flagging down another cab. Which took forever. Meanwhile, its 100 degrees. Again. All we wanted to do was go to a museum. It just couldn’t be easy.


Finally he gets another cab -- from his company, which is what took so long -- and off we go to the museum. After 6 blocks more, we notice a distinct smell of burning electrical wires. The drivers notices it too and points at the air conditioner. You know what’s coming -- he turned off the air conditioner. He did turn it back on before we were completely cremated and we arrived at the museum.

The museum was wonderful, and like the Shanghai Museum, it was free. We saw lots of antiquities, including real Ming porcelain that was just beautiful. There was also an fantastic set of 2-tone temple bells that were excavated from an emperors tomb, circa 200 BC. 


And then  we came back, got our stuff and took a taxi to the airport, heading for Xi-an.